‘Who the fuck is Car Seat Headrest?’ my editor retorted when I asked him a few months ago if I go could go along to review tonight’s show. In the small space of time between that conversation Car Seat Headrest – aka 23-year-old Will Toledo – has gone from being a relative unknown outside of certain blogospheres to getting a substantial amount of attention, earning prime time play on BBC Radio 6Music and his excellent recent album Teens of Denial making its way into many publication’s favourite albums of the year so far. Tonight he’s sold out The Hope and Ruin well in advance and based on the number of people pleading for tickets on the event’s Facebook page, he could have probably filled a venue with a significantly larger capacity.

He opens with – as Will describes it – ‘a song you’ve probably never heard before’, the epic in length ‘The End of Dramamine’. The song is multiple waves of tension and release as it builds up only to drop back down again to its naively simple drum beat and a single pulsing bass note.

After that deep-cut they immediately launch into probably their most popular song at this point: ‘Fill in the Blank’ is probably the most anthemic song about clinical depression I can recall. “I’ve got a right to be depressed!” Toledo declares defiantly in the last chorus, but it’s a victory that doesn’t reap much in the way of reward. ‘Destroyed by Hippie Powers’ and ‘Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales’ likewise marry some killer sing-alongs worthy of Superchunk with lyrics that deal with such subjects as substance dependency. Considering how much Headrest’s music is occupied with describing how resoundingly uncool Toledo is, he initially cuts an expectantly bookish and awkward figure, but it isn’t long before he’s limbered up a bit, slumped over his guitar and attacking it with vehemence.

At one point Will breaks his top E string and they play the rest of the show by ear, having to stop the drummer at one point when he realises he can’t play one of the songs and taking requests from the audience who opt for a rendition of ‘Cosmic Hero’ minus the trumpet intro. As a unit they’re phenomenally tight. Which is probably why they can play so fast and loose with their set list. Seemingly adapting to last minute or spontaneous changes without so much as batting an eyelid.

After the marathon length of ‘The Ballad of Costa Concordia’ – Toledo confessing exhaustively “I give up” – the band quickly evacuate the stage, leaving just Will on his own to give a rendition of ‘Stop Smoking’. “Stop Smoking / We Love you/ and we don’t want you to die”. It’s funny, but he also manages to ring genuine emotion out of the cliché. They slink out the entrance but the crowd aren’t going to let them get away that easily – stomping on the ground in unison demanding another song. Car Seat Headrest is indie rock as it should be, full of acute and witty observation but also able to provide emotional release.
Louis Ormesher

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